1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a foot operated apparatus, and in particular, to a foot operated flushing apparatus connected to an internal flushing means within a tank of a toilet such that the toilet is converted to a dual-actuated flushing toilet.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventional cistern type toilets typically include a seat, bowl, tank and hand actuated flushing mechanism such as a lever or handle at the front of the toilet tank for flushing the toilet. Once it is desirable to flush the toilet, a user of the toilet must actuate the lever by hand, whereby an internal component or system within the tank is activated for flushing the toilet. However, the use of hand operated toilets often leads to the spread of germs, disease and contaminants. They can also be difficult to operate for those with back problems, as well as being difficult to operate for the elderly due to the risk of falling or loosing ones balance as a result of extending and/or bending to hand-actuate the toilet lever.
To avoid the above problems, prior art has been directed to providing toilets with foot operated flushing apparatus. However, conventional foot operated flushing apparatus are often expensive and difficult to install, such as, those apparatus that entirely replace the lever or handle of the toilet with the foot operated flushing mechanism. For example, the prior art apparatus of Seek, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,594,828 and 3,594,829, both replace a conventional flush handle/lever, as referred to therein respectively, with a cable connected to a foot-operated pedal or a hydraulically operated transmission tube connected to a foot-operated pedal for flushing the toilet.
Other conventional foot operated flushing apparatus are cumbersome and make it difficult to flush the toilet using the lever or handle. These include foot operated apparatus that are attached to the toilet lever for actuation thereof by adding on a foot operated flushing mechanism to the front of the toilet, and in particular, to the flushing lever or handle at the front of the toilet tank. The prior art is replete with such references. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 4,847,924 to Samaniego discloses a toilet flushing mechanism comprised of a member that is disposed over the flush handle and is brought into engagement therewith by operation of a foot pedal. U.S. Pat. No. 4,868,931 to Schneeweiss includes a bracket assembly that is secured to the flush valve handle and is operatively connected to a foot lever. The apparatus described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,142,708 to Johnson et al. includes a flushing handle of a toilet being connected to a foot lever by a chain linkage. A number of other references, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,847,924; 4,007,499; 5,170,513 and 5,339,468, focus on flushing control mechanisms connected to a lever or handle of a toilet or urinal for flushing thereof U.S. Pat. No. 6,089,542 to Caravella et al. discloses a foot-pedal connected by a cable to an integrated drive bar disposed to engage a plunger to affect actuation of a flushing element.
Again, these and other arrangements taught in the art typically suffer from one or more significant disadvantages. In particular, they are often expensive, difficult and time consuming to install, unattractive, inconvenient to use, hard to clean, cumbersome and subject to tampering, vandalism, or undue maintenance requirements.
As it is highly desirable to have a flushing control apparatus that eliminates the above problems, and one that is inexpensive, attractive, and both easily and conveniently installed on an existing toilet, a need continues to exist in the art for further improved methods and systems that assist in the flushing of a toilet that avoid spread of germs, disease and contaminants, and are easy to use.